In the process of laying a terrazzo floor, it is necessary that the poured floor covering be easily spread about within a boundary defined by separators or the like which are generally oriented in a rectangular or square pattern as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. It is generally the object of the personnel moving the poured floor covering material about to come reasonably close to placing the prescribed amount of poured floor covering material in each region bounded by the separators so that as the material is trowelled, a certain specified depth of material above the separators will remain. Thereafter, a floor covering grinding machine will be utilized to grind the excess floor covering material down to the prescribed dimension followed by a polishing of the floor covering to enhance the beauty of the terrazzo floor. Many manhours have been necessary in order to spread the poured material about and to have it end up being the prescribed dimension above the plane defined by the top wall of the separators. As the cost of labor increases year after year, terrazzo flooring has become a very expensive item in a building contract causing many customers to opt for different and less expensive types of floor covering.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a machine for compacting and leveling a poured floor covering, which is operable by a single person to enable a compacting and leveling of many square feet of flooring in a given period of time which used to take several workers to accomplish in the same period of time.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a machine, as aforesaid, which has adjustment features thereon enabling the height of the floor covering material above the top edge of the separators to be adjusted to the desired level.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a machine, as aforesaid, wherein poured floor covering material need only be placed in the prescribed regions bounded by the separators with little or no care being given to the amount of such material being placed in each such area to thereby minimize the number of manhours required to spread poured floor covering material about the site.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a machine, as aforesaid, which has poured floor covering material spreading structure to enable the floor covering material to be spread evenly within the region bounded by the separators and to a specified height above the top edge thereof.
It is a further object to provide a machine, as aforesaid, which is self-propelled.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a machine, as aforesaid, which necessitates only a single pass of the machine over the poured floor covering material to produce a floor covering of the desired dimension above the top edge of the separators.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a machine, as aforesaid, which is durable in its construction, simple to operate and requires little or no maintenance.